by Casey, Ryan
Vincent scratched the side of his head. “Again. You panicked. You worried about it. You lost it. I don’t know.”
“Vincent,” Mike said. “Do you really believe that? Don’t you remember who I am? What I stand for? Think about it. Why would I do this to anyone? Why would I do it to a kid? To Tom, of all people.”
Vincent took a sharp inhalation in, then looked away from Mike for a second. “That’s the question we’re trying to get to the bottom of. And you’d better believe me when I say that I really, really don’t want to have to hold you responsible for this.”
Mike sensed something else was coming. “But?” he said.
Vincent sighed. “We found something else, Mike.”
Mike’s stomach went to stone. Every muscle in his body shook. He could sense something was coming. He just didn’t know what yet.
Only that one thing was for sure. He sensed it wasn’t going to end up a positive outcome for him.
“We found something,” Vincent said, a sense of regret to his voice. “When we were searching your room. Stuffed under your bed.”
“What—”
“We found a shirt in your room. A shirt tucked into a gap between the floorboards. It was splattered with blood.”
Mike shook his head as his throat grew more strained, as his mouth got dryer. “Vincent—”
“I’m sorry. Mike. But I can only go off the evidence in front of me. And I can only satisfy the will of the people.”
He stood up. Looked at Mike with an altogether different expression now. With a look he’d never regarded him with before.
“We’re holding you on suspicion of the murder of Tom,” Vincent said.
“Vincent—”
“We’re holding you on suspicion of trying to disrupt the peace in this place. Of trying to undermine democracy.”
“You can’t—”
“Your time to defend yourself is up for now, Mike. I’m sorry. Truly. But I need… I need to show I’ve got control of this situation. I need to act. You understand that. Don’t you?”
Mike couldn’t speak. He could only watch as Vincent turned around. Walked over towards the steps.
And as he started to climb them, as he approached the door… Mike couldn’t deny something he felt.
Something deep within.
Fear.
“I didn’t do this, Vincent,” Mike said. “You’re falling into a trap.”
“You’ll be informed of our decision soon. And the necessary steps we’re going to have to take.”
The necessary steps.
Mike heard those words echo around his mind as Vincent closed the cell door.
As the darkness filled the room.
As silence surrounded.
And he knew everything was falling apart.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sarah watched the door to the cell slam shut from a distance, and she felt more guilt wrack through her system.
It was a bright day. And there was a real sense of optimism in the air, despite all the chaos. Despite of all the drama. Despite all the tragedy.
There was a sense that things were being resolved. That all this mess was coming to an end.
And people would be right to think that way.
It was coming to an end. The end was getting closer and closer.
But there were still a few pieces of the jigsaw puzzle left to fall in place.
She felt the weight on her shoulders. The weight of all the things she’d done. Of the planting of evidence. Of the tampering with the truth.
But most of all… of Tom.
She thought about what had happened to him and how wrong she’d felt about it. How awful a move it was. And how much it made her doubt the path she was going down, after all. The leadership she was following.
But she was too far in to turn back now.
She was too deep into this mess to reverse out of it.
She felt an arm wrap around her, making her jump out of nowhere.
When she looked, she saw Romesh by her side.
“You okay?” he asked.
She looked back at him—back into those beautiful, naive, innocent eyes—and she half-smiled. “Yeah,” she said. “Still just… getting my head around this. Around all of it.”
Romesh sighed and nodded. “Whatever the case, I know one thing for sure.”
Sarah looked at him. “What’s that?”
“If I know one thing for certain… it’s that Mike’s not behind this. He’s not capable of this. I know him. I know him well. And I know what he is and isn’t capable of.”
“Sometimes… sometimes people can be surprising.”
“Sure.” He leaned closer to Sarah, then. “But this is Mike we’re talking about. And we’re not going to let him fall on the sword for this. We’re going to get to the bottom of it. Even if it’s just me alone. And I’m not going to stop until I do.”
Sarah felt bad. She loved Romesh.
But she wanted him desperately to stop digging.
She wanted more than anything for him to stop trying to pursue the truth.
Because it was only going to get him in trouble.
Major trouble.
She took his hand. Squeezed it. Hard.
“We’re going to be okay,” she said. “One way or another, we’re going to get through th–”
“Why were you sneaking around Mike’s place last night?”
Sarah turned. Heart in her throat.
She saw a different look in Romesh’s eyes, now.
She saw suspicion.
And his hand. It didn’t feel warm. It didn’t feel comforting.
It felt… cold.
“I—What’re you—”
“Don’t lie,” Romesh said. “I saw you. What were you doing outside it? And if you’ve nothing to hide… why are you being so shifty about it?”
Sarah’s heart pounded. Anxiety tightened around her throat. This was her nightmare. Romesh was always supposed to be on her side. Even when things went to hell, it was still supposed to be these two, together.
So she had to think about this.
Carefully.
“I… I went there because I wanted to know. I didn’t think he was capable of anything like this. But I needed… I just needed to see. For certain.”
Romesh scanned her face a few times. Really studied it. And she waited—braced herself—for the next line of enquiry.
But then he just squeezed her hand and smiled.
“I know,” he said. “It’s hard to take. But like you say. We’ve got this. We’re together. Us and the baby. No matter what. Right?”
She felt that guilt. That deep guilt about the truth of the baby.
She nodded back at him. Kissed him.
But as she pulled away, just for a moment, she still saw a flicker of suspicion in his eyes.
She still saw a flicker of doubt.
“Anyway,” he said. “I’d better get off. Work to be done.”
They kissed again. And Sarah watched as he walked away. Watched as he disappeared into the distance.
She looked at the door to Mike’s cell.
Then she looked back at Romesh as he disappeared into the distance.
One thing was for sure.
She loved this man.
But the truth couldn’t get out.
The reality of what had happened couldn’t get out.
She took a deep breath.
Remembered the way she’d looked at Tom.
Held him.
Told him everything was going to be okay.
She remembered the way she’d ploughed that knife into him.
And she looked at Romesh as he disappeared around a corner.
She’d go to any lengths to protect her secrets.
She’d go to any lengths to protect the truth.
She’d go to any lengths to see the new world order come into play.
And it was close.
It was very close.
Somewhere overhead, out of n
owhere, a storm-cloud emerged and blackened the grounds…
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kelsie sat in Siobhan’s home and thought about what had happened to Tom—about what they said happened to Tom.
It was late. The day had been another long one, stretching on. She missed the time when she didn’t have to worry about what new things might happen when she opened her eyes. She saw what the power outage had done to this place, and she feared that it was only going to get worse and worse from this point on.
Because she’d seen how quickly things had got to this point.
She’d seen how fast things had changed.
And she couldn’t bring herself to believe it.
She couldn’t bring herself to accept it.
Not what had happened to Mike.
She thought about what they said he’d done as she sat with Siobhan. There was a board game in front of them, but neither of them was really paying any attention to it. They were still caught up in what had happened to Tom. That was something Kelsie wasn’t sure either of them was going to get over.
Especially not Siobhan. Because she knew how close Siobhan and Tom actually were.
“Do you think he did it?” Kelsie asked. “Really?”
Siobhan looked around at Kelsie. To be honest, Kelsie wasn’t sure where those words came from. They kind of popped up out of nowhere.
But it was the question on everyone’s mind. Even the people who were keeping quiet. Even the people who really believed the official story of what had happened, it seemed.
But Kelsie knew Mike.
And as much as she knew what he was capable of when it came to protecting those he cared about—those he loved—this wasn’t something he’d do.
“It had to be him,” Siobhan said. “I mean… they say they found his knife.”
“That could’ve been planted.”
“Well—well his room. The syringes. The things like that. How can they be explained?”
Kelsie thought about all the convenient pieces that had fallen into place in order to frame Mike, and the more she heard, the less she believed, in all truth.
Because it seemed like someone was trying to frame him.
Trying to set him up.
And as far as she could see… that plan had worked perfectly.
Which was scary to Kelsie.
“You should stop believing conspiracy theories,” Siobhan said. “He did it, Kelsie. I know you love him like he’s a dad or something. But there’s—there’s no other explanation.”
Kelsie sighed. Nodded. She wasn’t sure at all. But it looked like there was no winning Siobhan over.
“Anyway,” Siobhan said. “I need the loo. Get on with your move, and maybe we can carry on with this when I’m back.”
Siobhan disappeared out of the room, and at that moment, Kelsie felt something. An urgency. An urgency to get out of this place. An urgency to say what she really thought, how she really felt.
She went to make her move when she saw something under the sofa.
It caught her eye, just for a split second. She didn’t know what it was. She didn’t even know why it was attracting her attention, not really.
But it looked like something had been stuffed under the sofa.
Kelsie looked around. Looked to where she knew Siobhan had gone. She could hear footsteps around the bathroom. Did she have time to search? And what would Siobhan do if she found her searching?
No. She shouldn’t be silly. Siobhan wouldn’t do anything. Siobhan was her friend.
But what if?
She reached under the sofa. Stretched out her hand. But as much as she tried to reach, she couldn’t.
She needed to stretch a little further.
She needed to—
A sound. Footsteps. Movement.
Getting closer.
She went to pull her arm out from under the sofa when she froze.
The footsteps. The movement. It had stopped. All of it had stopped.
She looked back under the sofa. Stretched out again. And this time, she felt the bag just in reach. She felt it tickle the tips of her fingers.
She took a deep breath, grabbed it, then pulled it out.
When she pulled it out, she realised what it was. A carrier bag.
But something was in it.
Something was inside it.
She opened it up.
And she froze.
She froze, and a sense of dread crept through her body.
Because she knew exactly what she was looking at.
There was a rucksack of syringes beneath her.
Some of them were filled.
And there were other things, too. Drawings. Little sketches.
As she looked at these things, she tried to wrap her head around it, heart pounding. She tried to understand.
But then she heard the floorboards creak behind her.
She turned around.
Siobhan was right behind her.
But she wasn’t alone.
Sarah, was there, too.
But they weren’t looking at her in their usual ways.
Siobhan looked… sad.
And Sarah. She looked different. A woman possessed. Wide eyed. Glaring right at her.
“What is this?” Kelsie said. “What—what does this mean?”
Sarah took a deep breath and sighed. “Siobhan, get out of here.”
“But—”
“Get out,” Sarah said. A viciousness, a venom, to her voice that Kelsie had never heard before.
Then she looked back at Kelsie.
A glimmer of a knife in her hand.
“It’s over, Kelsie,” Sarah said. “Stand up. Turn around. And put your hands above your head. It’s over.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Vincent looked out of his window and felt that familiar dread building in his body.
He couldn’t sleep. Never could these days. Not since the power had gone out, and all the fallout that had come with that. The darkness outside was intense. Suffocating. He wanted nothing more than that light that the hydroelectricity used to provide; that hum of power in the air.
He wanted nothing more than to go back to how things were.
But he knew that would be wishing for a fantasy.
He swallowed a lump in his throat. All the time, he was close to breaking down, close to crying. Because he felt like everything they had worked on with this place was teetering on the brink. He felt like everything was collapsing.
He felt like he’d worked so hard to get to where he was, and now he was on the verge of losing it all. Of losing everything.
He thought of Graham, then. How he used to loathe him, loathe his ideas. But in a strange sense, Graham had been an ally recently. He’d heard Vincent out. He’d shown him respect.
But at the same time… Vincent couldn’t get out of his head the situation with Mike. What Mike had told him.
He feared this was some kind of set-up sparked by Graham.
What if that was right?
What if it was true?
He shook his head. Turned away. As much as he wanted to have faith in Mike because of the man he wanted to believe he was… he knew that people had their agendas. People had their motives.
And he also knew it wasn’t possible to pretend to truly understand someone.
But Mike.
Would he do this? Really?
He was about to retreat to bed to stare up into space a little while longer when he heard a knock at his door.
He turned around. Looked at it. Nobody usually knocked at this time. Nobody usually bothered him this late.
Only when it was serious.
Another knock at the door. A bang, this time.
“Vincent. It’s Graham. I—I need your help. It’s urgent. Quick.”
Tension built up inside Vincent, then. The fear in Graham’s voice. The urgency to the way he spoke.
But Vincent wasn’t sure he was ready for whatever was ahead.
He wasn’
t sure how much longer he could handle this mess.
But then he took a few deep breaths. Composed himself. He was the leader of this place. People relied on him. People respected him.
He owed it to them to do whatever he could in this situation, whatever it was.
He walked over to the door, shoulders back, chest out, and unlocked it.
Graham was standing there. Fear in his wide eyes.
“Graham?”
“Outside the gates,” Graham said. “There’s—there’s a group of people. Armed. They—they have Gina. They have Sarah and some of the others. They—they want to speak to the leaders of this place. We need to go. Now.”
Vincent wasn’t sure what to say to Graham’s words. They didn’t sound… right.
But the moment was urgent.
It demanded attention. Immediate attention.
“How many—”
“No time,” Graham said. “We need to go down there right this second or more of our people will die.”
It was that “more of” that did it. It implied people had died already.
Vincent couldn’t just sit back. He couldn’t just allow more people to fall.
He couldn’t let this be the moment that broke this place completely.
He rushed outside, after Graham. Followed him down the hospital corridors, down the steps, out towards the outside. And as they stepped outside, Vincent was still struck by just how calm everything seemed. Just how at ease everything seemed.
Not the kind of situation where chaos was supposedly unfolding.
“Where—”
“Over here,” Graham said. And that’s when Vincent saw where he was leading him. The alleyway. The alleyway that led down behind the hospital and towards the rear entrance to this place.
That explained why he couldn’t hear anything. Couldn’t see anything.
He just knew he had to get there. Fast.
“Come on,” Graham said, jogging ahead. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
Vincent stepped inside the alleyway. And as he ran, he thought about how good things used to be. How good things had been for so, so long.
He thought about all these things, and then he saw Graham disappear.
He stopped. Froze.
“Graham?”
He looked over his shoulder. To the other side of the alleyway.
